BRIK

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Jul 8, 1989
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NAME

brik - calculate 32-bit CRC  

SYNOPSIS

brik -h

brik -gcGCbafvsqWHT file ...  

DESCRIPTION

Brik generates and verifies 32-bit CRC values (checksums). It is designed to generate CRCs for text files that are the same on all computer systems that use the ASCII character set, provided each text file is in the usual text file format for each system. Brik will also optionally use binary CRCs calculated using every byte in a file. Such binary CRCs are portable across systems for binary files that are moved from system to system without any newline conversion. Brik can be asked to decide by examining each file whether to calculate a text mode or binary mode CRC for it.

Changes from version 1.0 are summarized at the end of this document.

The general usage format is:

brik -gcGCbafvsqWHT [ file ] ...

The brackets mean that file, which is the name of a file, is optional. The three dots indicate that more than one filename may be typed (separated by blanks). Exactly one of the options -c, -C, -g, -G, or -h, is required. The -h option gives a help screen.

In addition to -h, the Brik options available (as they appear on the help screen) are:

-g
look for Checksum: header, generate CRC for rest of file
-c
get CRC from header, verify CRC of rest of file
-G
generate CRC for entire file (add -b for binary files)
-C
verify all file CRCs from output of -G (-f is not needed)
-b
use binary mode -- read file byte by byte, not line by line
-a
automatically decide whether each file is text or binary
-f
read filenames (wildcards ok) from specified files
-v
be verbose, report all results (else only errors are reported)
-s
be silent, say nothing, just return status code
-q
be quiet, don't print header for -G
-W
after generating CRC with -g, write it to original header
-H
after generating CRC with -g, print header to stdout
-T
include trailing empty lines, normally ignored (text mode only)

VERIFYING CRC HEADERS

The primary intended use of Brik is to verify Checksum: headers in Usenet postings and in C and Pascal source files. A Checksum: header looks like this: